As a naturalized American citizen I'm especially
proud to be a part of my adopted country. I just don't have any time for these
anti-war protesters who both take every opportunity possible to denigrate the
United States, as well as imply that the Bush administration is frothing at the
mouth in a mad dash to go to war against Iraq.

As someone said on a radio
show I was listening to earlier today, it's not that conservatives are pro-war;
we're pro-peace. However, to keep the peace the launching of a pre-emptive strike
against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is vitally necessary. After all, it's not
as if we are dealing with someone whose word can be trusted. Hussein has had 12
years and broken 17 resolutions ordering him to disarm. What makes us think he's
going to change now?

To believe that a Hussein behavior change is imminent
is the height of naivete, although sadly there are a number of liberals out there
who think that he will. I guess it just goes to prove what one well-known talk
show host is fond of saying, that liberalism really is a mental disease.

The
dangerous and pernicious symptoms of liberalism were really brought home to me
recently when I stumbled upon the anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-everything- good-
and- patriotic web site, www.notinourname.net. The operators of the site are vehemently
and vocally opposing the impending war with Iraq, so much so that they've even
set aside March 5 as a "National Moratorium to Stop the War on Iraq."

Here's some of what the people behind the site have planned. They're calling
for everyone (www.notinourname.net/call_for_the_moratorium.html)
to show their opposition "to this shameful and unjust war and their determination
to stop it." And if it looks like we'll go to war before that date, they
plan to move up the moratorium date.

For example, the site asks people to
show their support for the anti-war movement in a variety of ways such as calling
in sick to work, hanging banners at major overpasses and engaging in acts of civil
disobedience at military facilities.

Professors are also being asked to
cancel classes and churches have been requested to hold special services, with
a further suggestion that they ask their congregations to protest at military
recruiting offices and open up their doors to conscientious objectors.

Then
reminiscent of the 1960's, students are being asked to plan high school walkouts
as well as a variety of other campus activities.

"If
you had known about Hiroshima in advance, what would you have done to stop it?
Today's war-makers are telling us what they plan to do. This war will visit unspeakable
terror and suffering on the people of Iraq, in the name of liberating' them.
It will put people all over the planet at risk, in the name of protecting them.
It will, no doubt, be accompanied by even more severe repression within the U.S.
against immigrants and against resisters. And it will mark another terrible step
- the most horrific one yet - into a future of endless war and severe repression.
It is up to the people to stop it."

Here's the problem. These individuals
don't have any viable alternatives to war. Ask them what could work to contain
Hussein if we don't go to war and they have no answer. Are they planning to rely
on Hussein's integrity and his track record of keeping his word?

As President
Bush so succinctly said in his State of the Union speech earlier this year:

"The
dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary, he is deceiving ... Some have
said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists
and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they
strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions,
all words and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and
restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy and it is not an option."

There's
a statement at www.notinourname.net/call_for_the_moratorium.html
that stuck in my mind. It reads, "We must act on our conscience and resist
as if the future depends on it - because it does. We must inspire and organize
political resistance throughout society - where we live and where we work, where
we go to school and where we raise our children, where we play and where we pray."

We
need to take that statement and turn it around to our perspective. I hear someone
say this morning, "Well, I know there were a lot of people out there demonstrating
but look at all the people who didn't turn out to demonstrate. They were
at home supporting the war."

Maybe but maybe not. Some of those who
stayed home may have been war supporters; some were no doubt opposed to the war.
We'll never know because they were home. We have no way of ascertaining which
side of the political spectrum they came down on.

With that in mind, we
need to take March 5th and make it our day. Political disinvolvement benefits
the other side. Send letters to your legislators telling them of your support
for the Bush administration's position on Iraq; ask your pastor to hold a special
service to pray for the troops who are currently in the Middle East and those
who have yet to go. Hang banners of support for the war at major overpasses
and consider a legal demonstration close to your local military base assuring
the armed forces of your support and prayers.

Taking a lesson from the rhetoric
on www.notinourname.net, whoever you are and wherever you are, cross a line you
haven't yet crossed to show your support for the Bush administration's policy
on Iraq.

Then consider an afternoon or evening meeting to bring together
everyone who has done something earlier that day in support the just war on Hussein.

To borrow a sentence from someone else's play book, "The possibilities
are endless, collective and individual. Lay something important in your life on
the line, along with hundreds of thousands of others on the same day, on March
5" to support President Bush's policy on Iraq.

Contact the organizers
behind www.notinourname.net at info@notinourname.net
and tell them what we're planning. You may also call that office at (212) 969-8058.
And don't forget to pray for the individual apparently behind the site; Charles
Kissinger. You may e mail him (kindly) at cck@dissident.info

Lastly,
please circulate this article to as many sites on the web and as many friends
as you can. Call your local news talk radio station. I am available to do interviews.
Make copies and pass them out at church, and let's make March 5 a day of prayerful
patriotic fervor not one of godless, anti-American cowardice. It will happen if
you get involved; the choice is up to you!

Jeremy
Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy
Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter. He has a master's
degree in communication from the University of New Mexico and is pursuing his
PhD in intercultural education at Biola University in Los Angeles. He is married
with five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His work can be viewed
here and weekly at www.americasvoices.org.
He may be contacted by e-mail at reynalds@joyjunction.org.